Comparative Performance Analysis of Cryptographic Techniques for Securing the Physical Layer in Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) Systems

Sensitive medical data can be exchanged and collected via connected devices because to the rapidly expanding Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Protecting patient privacy and the dependability of medical applications requires ensuring the security and integrity of this data. This study examines and contrasts two cryptographic strategies for IoMT system physical layer security. The first method combines the HMAC-SHA-256 hashing technique to assure data integrity with the AES-256 encryption algorithm to maintain data confidentiality. The second strategy makes use of the AESGCM (Galois/Counter Mode) technique, which offers assurance of integrity and confidentiality in a single, integrated process. The study assessed and contrasted the performance characteristics of the two techniques with respect to the duration required for the encryption and decryption of identical data samples. The outcomes show that, in terms of encryption and decryption times, the AES-GCM technique performs better than the AES-256 + HMAC-SHA-256 strategy. The research's conclusions offer insightful information to IoMT system designers and developers, empowering them to choose the best cryptographic methods for protecting the integrity and confidentiality of private medical data in IoMT applications' physical layer.